The terrified words made her blood run cold. Robert’s babbling was nonsense, but it was nonsense she’d heard before. Just this morning, in fact, coming from the mouths of her patients in the burn ward. “Oh, Robert,” she whispered. “What have you done?”
His only answer was a shaking, labored breath, and Lauryn closed her eyes.
“It doesn’t matter,” she said quietly. “Whatever’s going wrong, whatever you’re on, you’re still my brother. We can fix this. I love you and I won’t abandon you. Now tell me where you are.”
There was another long pause, and then Robbie whispered something that sounded like an address. Sure enough, when Lauryn tapped it into her phone, a map popped up for a warehouse by the river not too far away. Given how out of it Robbie sounded, she wasn’t sure if that was actually right. The place looked all but deserted. It was all she had, though, so it would have to do.
“I’m on my way,” she promised, hopping up to grab her bag and the emergency med kit inside. “Just hold on.”
“Hurry,” he whispered. “They’re telling me they won’t let me go until you come.”
That sent chills down Lauryn’s spine before she reminded herself that Robbie was likely high out of his mind. She’d suspected drugs from the start, of course, but until she’d heard the proof in his own voice, she hadn’t let herself connect her brother with the strange outbreak gripping the city. Now, however, she had no choice but to face the truth. But terrified as she was, she refused to believe Robbie was lost.
“We saved the others,” she said. “We’ll save you, too. Hold on tight, kiddo. We’re on our way.”
Again, the silence stretched out forever, but this time, it didn’t break. Robbie had hung up. On purpose or not, Lauryn didn’t know, and she didn’t care. She was already racing out the door . . . only to skid to a stop when she realized she no longer had a ride.
Cursing under her breath, she was about to march right back inside and call a cab when she heard the rumbling of a familiar engine. A few moments later, Talon pulled around the corner, perched on a bike exactly like the one she’d seen him riding the night he’d appeared under her window.
“Hop on,” he said, tossing her a helmet.
Lauryn caught it without looking, her face bewildered. “Wait,” she said at last. “Didn’t you leave your bike at the hospital?”
“I did,” Talon replied, lifting up the visor of his helmet. “But when I heard you on the phone with your brother, I knew we’d need a ride. When I went outside to look for one, I found this.”
“Found,” she repeated, looking at the bike more closely. “So that’s not yours?”
He shook his head. “I believe it belongs to your neighbor three doors down.”
“So you’re just going to take it?” she cried. “What happened to ‘thou shalt not steal’?”
“It’s not stealing if you bring it back,” Talon replied with infuriating calm. “And since it was waiting for me with the keys already in the ignition, I have faith that this was meant to be.”
“I have faith that it’s grand theft auto,” Lauryn said, scowling. “Though I suppose you’d call it another miracle?”
Talon smiled. “‘What we need, the Lord provides.’”
Lauryn doubted the actual owner would see it that way, but she was in too big a hurry to argue over Talon’s suspicious ability to “find” things. She’d make Robbie pay the guy back for the bike later if it came to that. Right now, they were running out of time. “Let’s just go,” she said, shoving the helmet in her hands onto her head. When she was sure it wouldn’t fall off, she vaulted up onto the bike behind him, wrapping her arms around Talon’s broad back as he gunned the engine. He took off a second later, blasting down the quiet, snowy street with a speed that made her gasp. She held on with all her might, pressing her face into his coat to protect herself from the icy wind as she told him to go even faster, hoping against hope that they weren’t already too late.
At the same time, not far away, Will was entering the third hour of his stakeout.
He’d followed Korigan’s limo all over town, and the results had been very enlightening. Apparently, the police chief wasn’t just covering things up to save face. If the places he and Lincoln Black went to were anything to go by, Victor Korigan was neck-deep in the entire drug-making and distribution process for all of Chicago.
They’d ended their tour at a big warehouse by the river, which seemed to be acting as the distribution hub for all the Z3X trucks in central Chicago. Will hadn’t been able to follow them inside, so he’d kept watch from a nearby alley, organizing all the pictures he’d taken during the drive into a massive and damning pile of evidence he meant to send to the DA (and the press) as soon as possible. He was especially proud of the shots he’d gotten of Korigan and Lincoln Black together, since Black’s face—clearly recognizable from the hospital’s security cameras—was the smoking gun of the whole case.
The only reason he hadn’t sent it yet was because he wanted to make sure his case against Korigan was watertight. He’d underestimated the police chief twice now, and both times he’d regretted it. This time, Will wasn’t budging until he’d built a trap so secure, even a slick eel like Korigan couldn’t wiggle his way out. He was taking another set of pictures of the well-armed thugs standing around a van whose plates were registers to C-Company, the mercenary company Korigan had owned—and supposedly disbanded—before taking his current job as chief of police, when his ears caught the distant rumble of a motorcycle.
Looking back, Will couldn’t say why that sound in particular had stood out. The city was full of bikes, not to mention he was sitting outside of a warehouse staffed entirely by guys in the drug business. Loud engines were the norm around here, and yet, for reasons he couldn’t explain, this particular rumble made him look up from his camera just in time to see a bike with two riders pull around the corner of the side alley he’d chosen for his stakeout.
Two riders that looked an awful lot like Lauryn and Talon.
He dismissed the crazy idea immediately. Lauryn hadn’t been interested in his investigation this morning, but even if she’d changed her mind for some reason, there was no way, no way someone as smart as she was would be stupid enough to drive straight into a situation this dangerous. It had to be some other girl riding around with a big dude who carried a sword, just had to—
Lauryn took off her helmet, and Will swore a blue streak, jumping out of his car to grab her before the lookouts spotted them. He’d barely made it a foot before Talon turned around, smiling like he’d known Will was there the whole time.
“Hello, Detective.”
Lauryn jumped at the greeting, which was the only part of this Will felt good about. At least he’d snuck up on someone. “What are you doing here?”
“What are you doing here?” Lauryn said, chest heaving. “You scared the daylights out of me!”
All the more reason for her not to be here. “I’m here for work,” Will said sternly. “This is a stakeout.”
For some reason, that announcement made her whole face crumple. “I knew it,” she whispered, looking at the warehouse across the street. “I was hoping it was just a flophouse, but . . . This is where they make the drug, isn’t it?”
“One of many,” he said, puzzled. “But why are you here, then? You said you were done.”
“I was,” she said bitterly. “But then I got a call from my brother.”
And just like that, Will understood. He’d met Lauryn’s little brother only once before, when he’d picked the kid up for possession. At the time, he and Lauryn had just started dating, and he’d let him go with a warning so he wouldn’t have to tell his brand-new girlfriend he’d busted her brother. At the time, he’d convinced himself he was doing both of them a favor, but he’d seen Robbie in the clubs plenty of times since. He’d always held off investigating out of respect for Lauryn and the hope that Robbie would turn himself around. Now, though, Will had a sinking feeling that all his lenien
cy had done was cut the kid enough slack to hang himself. “He’s in there, isn’t he?”
Lauryn nodded, and Will swore under his breath. “And I suppose you think you’re going in after him?”
“I have to,” she said. “Will, I heard him on the phone. He sounded exactly like the burn ward patients did this morning before they went insane. What was I supposed to do? Leave him to his suffering?”
Call the cops. That was what he wanted to say, but considering he’d found this place himself by ignoring his suspension and following the chief of police, that wasn’t advice Will felt comfortable giving anymore. Not that it changed the fact that a civilian like Lauryn shouldn’t go anywhere near that warehouse.
“Forget it,” he said. “It’s way too dangerous.”
She scowled. “I’m not going to just—”
“Then I’ll go,” he snapped, cutting her off. “I wanted to get a look inside anyway.”
“You can’t go,” Lauryn cried. “You’re not even medically trained. What are you going to do?”
“Bring him out to you,” Will said, reaching into his glove box to grab his backup gun. “’Cause like hell I’m letting you go in there alone.”
“She won’t be alone,” Talon said, cutting in for the first time. “I’ll be with her.”
“Like that makes it better,” Will said, looking Talon up and down. “So far as I’m concerned, you’re both nuts, and you’re not going in.”
Lauryn’s glare turned dangerous. “I don’t need your permission to save my brother. He’s in there, possibly alone, suffering under the effects of the same unknown drug as this morning. He needs immediate medical attention, which means he needs me. I don’t know how I’m going to swing that yet, but I am definitely not going to stand out here waiting while you go in alone. End of discussion.”
Will didn’t see how that was the end of anything, but before he could remind her that he was the one with the gun and the training, the big warehouse doors across the street rattled open, and a whole convoy of trucks began to pull out. Hidden in the tiny alley as they were, Will, Lauryn, and Talon didn’t have to do more than step sideways to avoid being seen as the trucks drove by. A lucky stroke, to be sure, but considering how many trucks passed them, Will was having a hard time feeling good about it.
“Damn,” he whispered, pulling out his phone to take a few more pictures. “How many of these are there?”
“What’s in them?” Lauryn whispered back.
“Z3X,” Will said. “It’s an additive I’ve been tracking for a while now. The official story is that it’s something they use to make the drugs stronger with no real effects of its own, kind of like how a little salt makes food taste better without actually being salty. Considering I’ve seen factories pumping out trucks of the stuff all afternoon, though, I’m not so sure that’s the case anymore.” At this rate, given how many of those trucks he’d seen roll out in the last few hours, there was probably more Z3X on the streets than the drugs it was supposed to enhance.
From the look on her face, Lauryn’s thoughts were following the same track. “Do you think this Z3X could be related to the green stuff and all the other problems we’ve been having?”
“Do I think so? Of course. Do I have proof?” Will shook his head. “Before Korigan kicked me out of the office, we were running Z3X at the lab, and everything we found came back with nothing. So far as we can tell, it’s just inert powder, a chemical cocktail of otherwise safe ingredients. We don’t even know how it enhances drug effects. To be honest, before now, I kind of thought that was just some clever marketing to make junkies accept cut drugs.”
Lauryn bit her lip, thinking. “That list,” she said, her eyes sharp. “Did it include sulfur by any chance?”
Will nodded. “That was the first thing I checked. Sulfur was compound number two on the lab report, but there’s not enough to be toxic.”
“Even trace amounts are good enough for me,” Lauryn said, rising up from her crouch. “For now, though, we should go. They just sent out a massive shipment, which means they’ll be both chaotic and empty. We’ll never have a better chance to get inside.”
That was a damn good point, and Will was sick of arguing anyway. Lauryn was impossible to put off once she got something stuck in her head. The best he could do was go along and keep her from getting hurt.
“Fine,” he said, grabbing a USB stick and connecter out of his pocket so he could pull the evidence photos from his phone. “You want to be crazy, let’s be crazy. Just give me a sec to make a backup of what I’ve found so far for the DA and—”
He cursed under his breath. In the moment he’d looked away, Lauryn and Talon were already jogging across the street toward the gate the departing trucks had left open in the fence. Talon even had his sword out, guiding Lauryn through the dark like he was a paladin leading a siege on the enemy fortress. Swearing up a storm, Will backed up his photos as fast as he could and shoved the USB stick deep into his car’s glove box. He’d have much rather gone ahead and sent them to the DA, interior warehouse photos or no. But without a careful note explaining what the pictures showed, the evidence wouldn’t mean anything, and he had no time. He’d just have to do it later. For now, he darted across the street, keeping his gun ready as he chased Lauryn and Talon into the shadow of the warehouse.
And high overhead, invisible in the dark, a tall man with a sword of his own stepped away from the factory window with a grin.
12
Into the Lion’s Den
Daniel was brought out and thrown into the lions’ den.
The king said to him, “You always serve your God faithfully.
So may he save you!”
—Daniel 6:16
The detective insisted on leading the way.
Talon was happy to let him. Bringing up the rear let him keep a closer eye on Lauryn, and after what had happened in the backyard, he needed to watch her more closely than ever.
His fingers tightened at the memory, gripping the hilt of his sword so hard it hurt. The weapon of a Soldier of El Elyon was a holy object, the physical proof of a warrior’s strength, faith, and sacrifice. Receiving one was a sacred rite and a holy mystery unique to every SEE warrior. Talon’s own had come to him via the hardest road imaginable. It was, in short, not something the average person could just pick up and play with . . . and yet that was exactly what Lauryn had done. But then, Talon had known from the beginning that she was no ordinary young doctor. The moment her voice had reached Lenny buried in the depths of demonic possession, he’d known she was the one he’d come to Chicago to find.
He only wished he knew why.
Talon had learned long ago that faith in the Lord was never misplaced. It was a lesson his old teacher had sacrificed everything to show him: that even when you didn’t understand the path, God didn’t make mistakes. If you followed and kept the faith, you would always arrive where you were meant to be. That was the road by which Talon lived his life, but even now, so many years later, it still hadn’t gotten any easier. For all his faith and trust, it was hard to look at a girl who did not believe, who had no martial training and put no value on it, who refused to accept miracles even when they happened right under her nose, and not wonder, why her?
Why would God choose someone so unsuited? Surely, in all of Chicago, there was someone more qualified, more ready to take up this burden. Surely, it had to be so, and yet every sign so far had pointed squarely at Lauryn, and unlike her, Talon never ignored the work of God’s hands. For reasons only God knew, Lauryn had been chosen, and that made it Talon’s duty to protect, aid, and guide her. But while the physical protection part of that was easy enough, his attempts in the other areas were abject failures. At this point, Talon was positive that if Jesus himself came down on a cloud, Lauryn’s reaction would be to stick her hand into the spear wound in his side to make sure it was real . . . and then send his sacred blood to the lab for testing.
But while the whole situation was frustrating beyond b
elief, Talon knew better than to expect an answer. The saying that “God works in mysterious ways” was there for a reason. Talon was hardly the first man to be baffled by the will of the Almighty. He couldn’t make Lauryn believe any more than he could make her into the sort of pious, holy warrior he wished he’d been sent to find. All he could do was push ahead and remember that the Lord knew what he was doing, even when it didn’t seem that way.
And speaking of . . .
“My god . . . ” Will whispered as he pushed open the warehouse’s metal door.
Lauryn had already crowded in behind him, her dark eyes gone wide. “How is there so much?”
Talon was wondering the same thing. From the outside, the warehouse had looked like any of the dirty redbrick turn-of-the-century meat processing houses that had dotted this part of the city since Chicago’s boom days. Inside, however, was an entirely different story.
The cement floor, once used for packing, was now completely covered in huge metal tanks the size of swimming pools. The door Will had chosen for their entrance was a slightly elevated fire exit, a protected vantage point that both provided cover from the workers on the floor and gave them an excellent view of the emerald-green liquid being stirred inside each one and then pumped out onto a drying belt where it hardened and broke down into a blackish-gray powder. This, in turn, was scraped into huge bags by men wearing gas masks to protect their lungs from the noxious reek of sulfur that hung like a plague in the air.
There was also a suspended second-floor area where still more men worked like fiends, dividing the industrial sacks of powder into smaller personal-sized baggies, which were then loaded onto pallets and sent back downstairs via a lift to the loading bay. Since they’d just seen a shipment go out, Talon would have expected this to be empty, but the bay looked full to him, the pallets of powder stacked three-deep against the walls. A detail Will noticed as well.
“They must be making it faster than they can ship it,” he said, pulling out his phone to start snapping pictures. “This is crazy. I’ve never seen drugs manufactured on this scale. And this is only one factory. They’ve got more.” He gritted his teeth. “There must be more Z3X than people in Chicago by now.”
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