“That’s a man named Ronald,” whispered Ilya. “He’s conscious, but in a lot of pain. He believes he’s going to die.”
We all stood there for a moment, speechless, each waiting for someone else to make the next suggestion.
“Tatiana was here last night,” Ilya said. “She’s got a few lackeys helping her. Now that this has degraded into a captive situation, they’re not being gentle with their experiments. Tatiana told Hugo that none of these subjects will live.”
“Hey, are you really sure you can read the minds in there without putting us at risk? How can you know you’re blocking Rubin simply by staying out of his mind?” No sooner than the words left my lips, a whizzing thud hit Cole in the back. He dropped like a stone and Faith shrieked. Darts hit her and Jonah next, and then Ilya as he cried out.
I whirled around looking for the sniper. I saw nothing, frantically whipping my head back and forth. And then the world went black.
When I blinked awake, my head throbbed. I felt my hands bound behind the back of a hard chair. Cracks of sunlight gleaming through gaps in the curtains dimly lit the room. The carpet was old and matted with bits of debris ground into dark shaggy yarn. A musty mold smell wafted through the thick air, mingled with sweat and body odor. I saw other seated captives. Faith, Jonah, Ilya, the twins with their wings looking painfully crunched, plus a few others I didn’t know– two women and one man, Ronald according to Ilya. Cole was strapped to the only bed in the room with an IV in his arm. All were unconscious.
Burning heat in my head seared my brain. I badly wanted to free my hands and crush my own skull to dull the pain. A sudden wave of nausea launched me forward and I threw up what was left of my muffin with swirls of yellow bile. I spat several times unable to wipe my mouth. I tried to speak, but the residue of stomach acid on my dry throat reduced my words to a painful croak.
All I needed to do was rouse Cole and he could free us all. But I suspected the fluid being fed into him was designed to keep him incapacitated. Could Faith or Jonah burn or freeze our bonds loose? Probably not a good idea. I’d seen their lack of precision and I really enjoyed having and using my fingers.
Footsteps echoed in the hall ahead. Faith groaned from her chair across the room. Her spot in the corner was farthest from me. I’d have to speak up to get her attention, so I concentrated on the person walking down the hall towards us. The footsteps got louder and closer as I squinted at the doorway in the dim light.
I recognized the man immediately. Brad, the lab tech from Innoviro, brandished a syringe. He met my gaze and smiled as he walked over to Cole’s IV and injected the contents of the container. He grabbed the back of one of the twins’ chairs and dragged her back out the door. The platinum girl left behind remained lifeless for a few minutes, but a sudden jolt to her body startled us both. From what I’d seen back on the beach, the twins seemed to share sensations. The twin in front of me moaned. Then she cried out, once and then again. Now, I was certain of it. The twin’s suffering ended, but the other girl wasn’t brought back.
Faith and Jonah stirred, but didn’t awaken. Instead, I heard footsteps again and Brad reappeared.
“We’re finally ready for you.” He grabbed the back of my chair and twisted it up onto its back legs, dragging me behind him. I tried to speak, but only a grunt came out.
“I’m really glad we can dispense with all that fluff and pretence now. I’ve always thought it’s easier to treat lab rats like lab rats, not coddle them with jobs and apartments and stupid corporate picnics.” He dragged me down a sunlit hallway and through the main room in the house’s basement. We reached another hallway and he turned into the first doorway.
The plain square room had a bare concrete floor, a stainless steel counter, and a few cabinets. Brad picked up a syringe of the familiar lavender liquid Tatiana had injected into me. I grunted again, still feeling more wakefulness returning. As Brad approached, I wriggled in my seat to fight him as much as I could.
“If you don’t sit still, I’m going to break this needle in your arm. And I’ll keep sticking you with needles until I get five milliliters into you and I don’t care how much it hurts. Totally up to you.”
I let my arms go limp, defeated, and exhausted. I felt Brad’s needle in my arm and the pressure of liquid being forced into my flesh. Nothing happened for a moment, but then Brad’s grip melted away and I watched him walking along an industrial park road at night. He was a much younger man. He walked up to a woman wearing slick black pants, long over-the-knee black boots and a fitted black biker jacket. Her perfectly ironed blonde hair gleamed down her back. Brad said something and she responded with a smile on her bright red lips. Her eyes were fringed with thick black make up, but still had a playful sparkle.
Brad caught her by surprise as he yanked her jacket down off one shoulder and put a needle in her bicep, much like he’d just stabbed me. The woman struggled to free herself from his grip, but quickly fell limp. Brad heaved her onto his shoulder and started back the way he’d come. As he passed under a streetlight, I saw her features more clearly. Camille’s unconscious face bounced above Brad’s back with each step. Under all that black armor, she looked very young herself.
In a flash, I slipped back to that concrete room, watching Brad dispose of the needle and tidy his work area. Thirst and exhaustion tapped my energy and my eyelids got heavier and heavier. The last thing I remember was Brad walking past me out the door.
A crash out in the hall woke me. I put my feet on the ground and twisted my chair. A cry of rage slapped my ears. A body flashed past the open door. All I made out was a white coat, but I hoped it was Brad. Cole burst into the room and I’d never been so delighted to see him.
“We’re gettin’ outta here now.” He gently lifted me up off the chair, leaving only my hands bound behind my back. “Idiot bound us with zip ties. Faith melted hers and she’s pulling off everyone else’s right now.”
“Hugo . . . here. Rubin’s car. Watch yourself,” I said groggily.
“Yeah, Jonah’s all over that. We all saw those vehicles on the way in, remember?” Cole said.
My memory seeped back through the haze of whatever had knocked me out. Suddenly I wondered what Jonah could do to Hugo with a spray of water. And then I remembered my burns. He’d have to lay hands on Hugo to harm him. I followed Cole out into the center of the basement where everyone had gathered, including Camille, the twins, and Vincent.
“Wait, where is Faith?” I asked.
“She went after Jonah. He thought he saw Hugo and she didn’t want him going alone,” said Ilya.
“Sonofabitch!” said Cole.
“What about Rubin? His car is here and he’s probably reading our minds right now. He’ll be long gone ...” I grabbed my head as the intense ache returned.
My mind’s eye took over again and I saw Rubin, bloody and unconscious behind the wheel of his car. He was in a ditch somewhere nearby. I couldn’t tell if he was dead or alive, or whether or not the accident had even happened yet.
“Cole, go after him now. He’s in his car, out on the road if he hasn’t crashed already. Leave us here. Go!”
He paused and then ran up the stairs.
“Faith and Jonah found Hugo.” Ilya bolted towards the open sliding glass door and ran out into the back yard. Jonah screamed. I ran after Ilya, racing toward the sound.
A huge flash of flame flared next to the gazebo at the very end of the long narrow yard. Jonah lay on the ground and Faith had a stream of fire aimed at thin air behind his body. A shout of rage turned into screams of agony as the flames revealed a massive charred figure.
Hugo dropped to the ground on his knees and keeled over, lighting the leaves and grass around him on fire. Faith shrieked as she ran to Jonah’s limp figure. I ran to them.
“No!” I yelled. “This isn’t happening!”
“Irina, don’t!” Ilya shouted.
Jonah’s form was intact, but warped. His arms hung limp, draped over his head like a puppet dropped to the ground. One of his legs leaked blood onto his thighs. I heard the pounding of someone running behind me and I turned expecting to see Ilya. Instead, Camille barreled towards us.
“He’s dislocated his shoulders. He has a spiral fracture of his left femur. Let me hold him.” She dropped down beside Jonah’s twisted body. “Go inside, this will take a while.”
We returned to the basement to find Vincent securing zip ties around Brad’s hands as he sat lifeless in a chair, bleeding from a head wound. One of the twins wrapped a strip of cloth around and around his mouth.
“At this point, I don’t think it’ll matter if he screams,” I said.
“Yes, I’m afraid it does.” She tied off the restraint and stood back with her hands on her hips, smiling at me as she surveyed the scene. The girl extended her hand and I shook it. I couldn’t help but stare at her wings. “Brad here can suck your brain out through your ear. I’m Sage. My sister is Rose. I don’t think we were ever introduced.”
“They’d look nicer with feathers, wouldn’t they?” Rose had come into the room behind me.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to stare.”
“Don’t worry, everybody stares,” said Sage.
“Dare I even ask what enables Brad’s brain sucking?”
“This man’s got what you might call a silver tongue,” said Vincent.
“His variation is kind of like a symbiosis,” Ilya said in a tone of clarification.
“Every time I learn something new about variations, I get a bit more freaked out.”
“Honey, you’ve hit the tip of the iceberg. Wait until you’ve been living this life for a few more years,” said Rose.
“I realize that more every day.”
I let myself keep staring back and forth between Rose and Sage’s wings as they discussed the pros and cons of our group remaining in the house. I took in the details from the bone or cartilage frames to the thick smooth wing skin. If they shifted towards a light source, enough glow came through to illuminate a varied network of veins. The closest form I thought of in the natural world was a bat’s wing.
I watched the way the twins stood and the tiny nuances of their body language. They moved with grace and strength. It was such a shame they had to conceal themselves from most of the world. I knew Cole had been dealing with his variation since adolescence, and maybe Faith too. But wings? Unless they were ‘made’ like Jonah, the twins would have been obvious from birth. Were they born in hiding? Wouldn’t hospital staff have seen them? Or an ultrasound technician? Those variables depended on their age–and mother’s access to care. Regardless, these weren’t questions I could ask, not anytime soon.
No matter how they had stayed hidden, these girls must have lived a whole lifetime of never being able to function in the world doing the little things everyone else took for granted. Going to school, shopping, getting a job, going on vacation ... anything really. Ilya’s beach would have been a sanctuary for them. It made my heart ache to picture them returning to somewhere like the catacombs.
“We don’t have to decide right now. Let’s go upstairs and see if we can find some food, or at least somewhere comfortable to rest,” said Sage. Rose and the other three variants who introduced themselves as Thea, Chloe, and Gilbert made their way up the stairs.
I turned to Ilya. “Is there any way we can interrogate this guy without his tongue attacking us?”
“I’m working on it.”
“I could always spit on him. It’d be sort of ironic if he died that way, wouldn’t it?” said Vincent.
“Died?” I said with alarm. “That’s a bit drastic, don’t you think? I’m not cool with being on the hook for that. I won’t take part in a murder.”
“And what do you think will happen when the cops find Hugo and Rubin. Chances are pretty good that Cole crushed that telepathic psychopath. Besides, we need this asshole to talk, don’t we?” Faith gave Brad’s chair a violent kick while still mopping tears off her face.
“Until he comes around, there’s nothing to debate. Seems a shame to have Camille heal him, even if we can get him to cooperate. I’d like to put a few more dents in him if I can’t melt his face,” said Vincent.
“Hey, isn’t Josh telekinetic? How about getting him to ‘hold’ Brad’s tongue back? That way he could talk, but he couldn’t attack,” Faith suggested.
“Would that actually work? Wait, who is Josh?” I asked.
“Josh worked security at Innoviro because he’s got a sub-dermal exoskeleton stronger than steel,” said Ilya.
“Steel-man could come in handy. Where is he?” said Faith.
“Josh got a job with a military contractor. Same work he did before Innoviro. He travels around, so he’s rarely in town,” said Ilya as Vincent coughed violently into a nylon rag. The rag smoked from Vincent’s spittle.
“Are you all right?” I asked.
Vincent nodded as he recovered.
“Looking back now, I’m surprised Ivan let Josh take that job. I think Ivan wanted to keep a low profile more than he wanted everyone under his thumb. And it was important to him that people see Innoviro as a benevolent force,” said Ilya. “Besides, Josh still comes back to Victoria regularly.”
“Damn, Ilya, why didn’t you ever give us a heads up about your old man?” said Faith.
“I wasn’t sure. I’ve never been able to read him. He was really careful about what he said and documented–at least as far as I know,” said Ilya.
“Enough of that talk. I don’t give a shit what Ivan’s reasons are. If I see him, I’m going to spit in his face,” said Vincent.
“Can we deal with Rubin first?” I asked. “He might still cause problems if Cole doesn’t catch him.”
Footsteps thumped down the wood stairwell behind me. “He’s nothing to worry about now,” Cole said with a flat darkness in his eyes. “I caught him pulling out of the driveway. So I ran after his car and threw it in a ditch.”
“Remind me never to get on your bad side,” said Ilya.
“Did you leave him in his car?” I asked.
“He’s dead. I’m sure about that. Nobody survived that impact, unless Rubin’s variation is more complicated than we thought,” said Cole.
“I believe you. The vision I had of Rubin in his car was exactly that. I must have seen a few minutes into his future. I thought of Rubin and I had a vision almost instantly. The injection Brad gave me must have ratcheted me up another notch.” I put my hand on Brad’s forehead. Nothing happened. “Ilya, can’t you read his mind?”
“Not while he’s unconscious,” said Ilya.
“Maybe that’s why I’m not getting anything either,” I said.
“But you’ve had visions from inanimate objects,” said Ilya.
“Oh yeah, good point. Damn, this is all going to take a long time to understand. I can’t even keep my own drama straight.”
“It’s safe to stay here for a while, so let’s wait for Camille to heal Jonah and for Brad to wake.” Faith’s voice was still shaky.
“What happened to Jonah?” asked Cole.
“He tried to kill Hugo,” I said.
“What do you mean ‘tried’ to kill him?” said Cole.
“He tried to drain him dry, but Hugo didn’t weaken quickly enough,” said Faith.
“So Hugo got away?” said Cole.
“No, I torched him.” From the look on her face, Faith’s shock had turned to anger.
Cole looked back at her with a subtle furrow of concern on his brow.
Camille entered the basement through the sliding glass door and we all turned our heads at once to look at her.
“Jonah is sleep
ing now,” she said.
“Is he going to be all right?” asked Faith.
“I healed his arms and legs. He also had a few broken ribs, but there’s something deeper that I can’t heal, something fundamentally wrong right down to the cells,” said Camille.
“His experiments,” I whispered.
Cole walked briskly past us all and out into the back yard. A minute later, he came back in with Jonah in his arms and carried him back to the bed where he’d been strapped down himself less than an hour earlier. “He’s aware.”
Chapter 14
We all agreed to lick our wounds for a while in the Highlands. A secluded location that worked well for illegal human testing would work equally well for simply hiding out. The twins made us a meal of pasta, chicken, and vegetables, having found the kitchen surprisingly well stocked.
Faith, Cole, and I took turns sitting with Jonah while Ilya, Vincent, and Camille rotated a watch over our captive. As day turned to night, the twins informed us that they planned to take the others back to town in Hugo’s extended cab pickup truck. I almost asked why they didn’t up and fly home, and then I pictured them being spotted dropping off one or more of their friends like a pale harpy landing in suburban Victoria. The truck made sense.
We still had Cole’s car anyway. Everyone knew the safest course of action was for all of us to disappear for a while, ideally each on our own, making us a multitude of targets instead of one variant jackpot. Ilya wanted to confront Ivan and reason with him, to talk him out of whatever plan he had for all this intense testing.
We agreed that with Rubin in a nearby ditch, we had to leave in the morning before his body was discovered. Even though his death appeared accidental, a search of Rubin’s car and a quick conversation with the neighbors could lead the police directly to us. If Brad didn’t yield any information by then, we would split up and move on–after removing him to somewhere he’d need time and effort to escape. Cole had already buried Hugo’s body in the woods.
In Irina's Cards (The Variant Conspiracy #1) Page 19