by Holly Hook
“Coming up,” Jacob said, not looking back. Trees parted for a moment, revealing black helicopters with the Keilaran coat of arms on the side. Riley resisted the urge to send up the flare. It was too soon yet. “Are they chasing us?”
She rushed to the railing and leaned over, prepared to dive back at the sign of any magic coming at her. But the soldiers were probably ordered not to hurt her, because nothing came.
That didn’t change the fact that three military boats identical to theirs were pulling away from the docks and roaring towards them, leaving white foam in their wakes. Gray-uniformed soldiers filled the decks, ready to scramble out and kill them, or worse, take them back to Emperor Ivan. Jacob would be executed. She’d be married. Riley couldn’t decide which was more horrible.
“Jacob, go!” Not witty, but it was the best she could do right now.
“Coming up!” he called back. “Flare gun ready!”
Riley rushed back up to the front of the boat. A pair of Keilaran helicopters drew lower overhead, ready to train their weapons. Concrete barriers lined each side of the river, marking the end of Ivan’s new territory and the start of what was still Keilara. Skyscrapers towered up behind the helicopters as if warning them back, and soldiers in green scrambled towards the shore at the sight of them, guns ready.
“No!” Riley waved her arms, moving in front of Jacob. The boat swayed to the side a bit, but she didn’t care. She couldn’t let them shoot Jacob.
“Riley, the flare!”
The helicopters came lower than ever as they crossed the border. At the same time, the growls of the pursuing boats died off behind them. She raised the gun, nearly dropping it, and pulled the trigger to watch an orange beacon whoosh into the sky.
The world seemed to go silent as the flare died in midair and fell back into the water. Jacob slowed the boat back down to a crawl, reaching around Riley’s waist to do so. Soldiers waited at the ready, guns drawn and pointed at the two of them.
Then, a voice rang out: “Hold fire! It’s the Princess!”
Riley wasn’t sure if she was going to laugh or burst into tears. She was home, and Jacob was with her. She wrapped her arm around Jacob as the boat thudded into someone’s private dock, sending their little fishing boat on a trip of its own and nearly sending the two of them down to the deck. Soldiers in green rushed out to meet them, thankfully holstering their weapons.
Riley hugged Jacob tighter as the two of them climbed out of the boat, protecting him. He stared at the houses around him as if he’d landed on another planet, all the houses without tin roofs or failing infrastructure, without statues of Ivan staring down at them. “Welcome to Keilara.”
* * * * *
Dawn threw the door open to the lounge, waking Kiki from a much-needed nap. She sat up from the table, angry that she'd drifted off with her sister in danger. But her mother wasn't crying or sickly pale. She was smiling.
“Everyone!" she yelled. “It's Riley! She's home! You won't believe who brought her."
The words hung in the air for a second, and then everyone in the room sprang to life. Ryan ran for his mother, followed by the King and Alexander, who straightened out his shirt as he ran.
"How?" Kiki started, running after her family.
“Bring us a helicopter!" her father told someone onscreen out in the meeting room. “We've got our daughter back!”
Kiki emerged out into the meeting room as the screen went black, hiding whatever soldier had given her mother the news. Her parents hugged, laughing for the first time in days. Damon hurried over, still dressed in his wrinkled uniform, and planted a kiss on her lips. Liquid sunlight seemed to spread through her entire body, shooting out the top of her head. Riley was home. Ivan no longer had her hostage. It was the first good thing that had happened since Damon had asked her to marry him. Maybe, just perhaps, not all hope was lost after all.
Chapter Twelve
August 27, 2017
Nobody expected the Imperial Commander—well, the former Imperial Commander—to be the one bringing her back. That was apparent from all the looks Riley's family gave Jacob as he stepped out of the elevator and into the National Bank’s top floor. Wide-eyed shock from Ashley, who held Amber close. A glare from Ryan. Even a narrow-eyed stare from Kiki.
Fortunately, her father had the courage to face them, because she sure didn’t.
"Everyone, it's okay. This is Jacob Ortiz. He is former Imperial Commander for Emperor Ivan, but has been sending us helpful messages about Ivan for the past few years. Our...former Royal General knew him as Revolution Fire. That I learned on our helicopter ride back to the headquarters." He smiled out at everyone in the meeting room, who stood crowded around the glass table. "He has decided to abandon Ivan and assist us. I am rather surprised that Revolution Fire turned out to be the Imperial Commander himself, however."
"Surprised?" Jacob wiped exhaustion out of his eyes and straightened out his cape. "You knew I had access to the palace. And Commander? That was a joke. Honestly, I think the Emperor just kept me there to look good."
"That's all we knew, Jacob. You were able to tell us so little," Riley's father said, waving everyone into the meeting room. Riley let her shoulders slump in relief. Her father, at least, seemed to approve of Jacob's presence so far. How would he be with everything else? And her mother?
Her mother stared after Jacob, doubt marring her features. "Jacob, the invasion—"
"Your Highness." He turned and gave her a bow. "That's the title, right? I'm very sorry about the invasion. I assure you, it was not my idea. I attempted to talk Ivan out of it more than once, and will continue to work against it. I have means. I want to see the overthrow of the Emperor just as much as you do, if not more."
"He's right," Riley broke in, fighting to speak over the sudden desert in her throat. Jacob couldn’t be sent away now, or worse, imprisoned. "Ivan controls everyone who works in his palace. He won't even let them out. That's partly why Jacob wanted to leave so bad." She didn't dare let slip the other two reasons. She had a feeling Jacob wouldn't want to discuss his sister with strangers, and when he was in such an exhausted state. He must have driven that boat all night, tense the entire time. And she wasn't even close to ready to tell them about the other reason. Her mother definitely wouldn't be too warm to the idea yet.
After getting no response from her mother, the former Commander turned to her sister. “Your Highness,” Jacob said, bowing down to Kiki and straightening up again. "It is a pleasure to meet you."
“Thank you for bringing my sister back,” Kiki said. She was all confidence even in her wrinkled black tank top and worn cammo pants. No doubt she'd been awake for days. “You have no idea how grateful we are. This will definitely be a blow to Ivan."
Her mother also seemed to slump with relief at those words. Jacob had risked his life to get her out of Lateine, after all. If her mother still had her doubts--and she would, knowing her—Riley could get an entire platoon of soldiers to back that fact up.
"I'm glad that I could help." He faced Damon next, studying his uniform. "Are you Patrick Maxwell? Royal General?"
Riley realized she'd never told Jacob about what was going on with her uncle. Damon tensed, his face twisting into disgust. "No. Well, yes. I'm Royal General now. I'm not Patrick. Patrick...he moved on to other things, to say the least. He decided to help Delainia plan its attacks on us and then went over to be their Commander."
Jacob's mouth fell open. “He must have taken my information about Ivan to Delainia.” He turned and paced over to the window, facing the south end of the city. Riley resisted the urge to run over and join him. “That may be why Darren Storm wanted to claim as much land for himself before Ivan made his move. The man is known to be quite paranoid. I’m very sorry.”
“Keilara and Delainia have had an uneasy truce until now,” her mother explained. “We never approved of the Storms’ experimentation, and we made that known by ending trade with them recently. Jacob, what is the Emperor doing with our l
and on the other side of the barricade?”
He explained what he could, returning to the glass table one step at a time. Everyone gathered around him in a huddle, including a purple-eyed man that Riley hadn't noticed before. What was an Emoshi doing here?
Sweat marks appeared around Jacob's palms as he flattened them out on the table. He was nervous. Riley shot him an encouraging glance as he told them about Imperial Land’s new tents in the suburbs and the soldiers making the citizens leave offerings in front of Ivan’s statue.
“Ivan promises peace?” Ryan exploded on the other side of the table. “Well, I suppose it would be peace if everyone lives in prison. If I were Royal General, I’d strike right now, while his forces are more spread out.”
“Ryan, you need to think things through a bit more. It’s a skill you’ll need when you’re an officer,” the King explained. “That is not feasible at this time. Lateinian magic is strong, and we’re the ones with our forces spread out. The best we’re doing at this moment is holding both Delainia and Lateine back.”
He was right. Every head at the table hung. Riley swallowed, fighting an uncomfortable feeling in her stomach. If Lateine pushed forward and won, Ivan would have her back. She wanted Jacob to come over and hug her, but he couldn’t. Not yet.
Kiki blinked several times and straightened up. “Thank you, Jacob. The information you provide may give us an advantage.” She stared at everyone in turn. “We should attempt to contact Darren Storm again. His last call seemed to indicate that he may be more willing to negotiate with us than Ivan. However,” she paused and wiped her palms off on her pants. “We need to be careful. Patrick is still out there, and we can’t be sure what he’s planning.”
* * * * *
“Darren, we must. Lateinian magic can do so much more than we can,” his wife explained as they stepped out of the helicopter. Her blond hair whipped back in the blustery wind as dark gray clouds seemed to lower above them. Even the black of her eyes seemed to have deepened with the seriousness of the situation.
Ah, Delainia. Home sweet home. Darren took a deep breath, relieved to be out of that Center of Industry. All the smells from that part of Frelladon gave him awful headaches, but at least Lateine hadn’t reached that area yet.
“I’m not certain about this, dear. As far as we know, the blood of Delainia has not mixed with any other race.” Not since the introduction of CDV into the water supply, that was. “This may have unexpected effects.”
Ahead, the hangar door of Complex Sixty-Two slowly raised, flanked by soldiers in black and red uniforms. Darren stepped past the soldiers as they gave him the presidential salute, not stopping to wave or smile like he usually did. He wasn’t on television, so there was no need. No one except the nation’s top scientists and military personnel were allowed within miles of the complex, not since the development of the CDV virus had begun a decade ago.
The hangar doors lowered behind them as they walked, casting the garage in darkness. Ahead, a Special Operations officer opened a steel door for them, casting clinical white light into Darren’s eyes. He squinted as the figure of Patrick Maxwell appeared next to him.
“What exactly will this entail for me, sir?” he asked. His purple-eyed stare bore into his own, steely and demanding.
Darren had to force himself to avoid pulling away from the newly-turned Emoshi. The man was strange on more levels than one. He lusted after his own niece, something that made Darren want to grab him by the cuff of his uniform and slam him against the wall. And Keilara said he had no morals. Delainia sorely needed him, however. He was the only Emoshi available in such a short time. “A blood sample will be fine. We have test subjects available. I gladly allowed a few foreign countries to send me their convicted felons over the years. You know, under the table? Let me say that they were glad to be rid of them.”
It was better than plucking someone off the street. Delainia’s scientific advances were worth whatever suffering these scum went through, and he’d reminded himself of the fact on the flight here. Somehow, even that hadn’t chased away the heavy feeling inside him, like something was trying to pull him back. The first experiments with CDV hadn’t caused this conflict inside him, and he wasn’t sure why.
“Are the test subjects human? Delainian?” Patrick asked, trailing down the hallway behind them.
“Human,” Gracie said, not looking back. She nodded to a pair of soldiers guarding the archway to the main lobby. “We want a clean slate to start with. We’re not certain the mix of CDV and Emoshi blood will be...tolerated by our citizens who have not been exposed to CDV yet.”
Two figures in lab jackets rose from a leather couch in the lobby, badges shining in the light. Elsie, his colleague from the university. And Albert, the white-haired Head Professor of Biology. Darren relaxed a bit as they walked up to him, black eyes shining with confidence.
“The prisoner has been prepared for injection, sir. He is waiting in Alpha Lab 2B.” Albert nodded as he spoke. “I see you have brought our new Commander with you.”
“Thank you, Professor,” Darren said. “You are performing a great service to Delainia, and will be remembered when we drive back Emperor Ivan.” If only he knew if that were true. The experiment would likely be a failure. CDV and Emoshi blood might not even be compatible, and nothing would happen, or the body wouldn’t be able to tolerate both, and the test subject could die. It was a risk they needed to take. The army, at least, needed an extra edge right now.
“This way,” Elsie said, waving the three of them towards a door on the other side of the room. She placed her finger on a pad, typed in a combination, and pulled the steel door open with a click to the main labs.
“It’s freezing in here.” Patrick wrapped his arms around himself as they walked past florescent lights, steel doors, soldiers, and tense figures in white lab coats. No one laughed or smiled, not like the time they’d discovered the CDV virus in that villager's bloodstream five years ago.
Darren felt the same. Even his wife’s lips were tight together with tension. Elsie opened the door to Alpha Lab 2B without a word and motioned them inside.
The air felt even colder in here, blasted down through the vents in the high ceiling. Glass on the right side of the room reflected the harsh florescent lights into Darren’s eyes, forcing him to squint. Behind the glass, lab jackets and military badges were barely visible. Footsteps echoed off the sterile, white-and-silver surroundings as he stepped into the room. Darren hadn’t been inside a lab for over a year now, thanks to politics, and had forgotten just how cold and lifeless they felt.
“Mmmk you!”
It took all of his restraint to keep from jumping. In the center of the room, strapped to an upright table and hooked up to a beeping heart monitor, was their test subject: Allen Yarmuk, his name spelled out on the cardboard sign next to his head. Age: 39 years. Conviction: six counts of murder and one attempted rape. Darren sighed in relief, glad that his colleagues remembered that he liked to have those signs there while he worked. It made these experiments much easier.
Yarmuk glared at him, eyes bloodshot and enormous and full of rage. Lines creased his tall forehead as he attempted to shout another curse through his gag.
“I have already briefed our audience on the nature of the experiment,” Elsie explained, gesturing over to a table next to Yarmuk. “You may begin.”
“Gloves,” Gracie instructed Patrick, donning hers. “We will draw your blood first, then ours, and inject both into our test subject.” She spoke loud, more for the benefit of the audience behind the glass than for Patrick.
Darren slipped the provided lab jacket over his clothes and slipped on his own gloves. Yarmuk had gone silent. Patrick rolled up his black sleeve, holding out his arm and staring at the murderer with great interest.
“What are you doing?” Darren couldn’t help but ask.
“Calming him. So he doesn’t yell as much,” Patrick said, shooting him a grin. “Very useful ability, it is.”
It
was true. Yarmuk sagged down on the table, chest relaxing. His eyes slipped closed as he breathing slowed. Darren couldn’t help but let a chill rush down his spine. He’d heard about Emoshis controlling the feelings of others, but he’d never seen it in action. It would, however, be a useful ability against Lateine’s army, if they could harness it.
If.
But what would Yarmuk be able to do once injected? “Elsie, I would like to double the security in here.”
“I agree with my husband,” Gracie said. Patrick flinched as she drew a sample of blood from his forearm and dabbed the site with a cotton ball. “I would also like more security before the injection.”
His wife was nervous about this as well, and for good reason. After this war settled down, he would take her on a second honeymoon. A cabin somewhere. With a Jacuzzi, just like they had on their wedding night. Darren focused on the thought as he drove the needle of the syringe into the crook of his own forearm, staring at the CDV-infected blood rising inside it. “I trust you have checked the prisoner’s blood type against mine?” He didn’t need the experiment failing due to such a simple error. Time was of the essence here.
“Yes, sir,” Elsie said. “You are clear. Of course, blood type won’t matter with Emoshi blood.”
“It never does,” Patrick added. “The transformation always goes off without a hitch.” He turned to watch several more black-uniformed soldiers enter the lab, guns drawn. They positioned themselves in twin lines on each side of the room. Yarmuk still breathed deeply on the table, as if he were meditating instead of waiting for something that might even kill him. While it was creepy, it was convenient. Yarmuk’s cussing would make it hard to focus.
Darren prepped the syringe filled with his own blood as Gracie readied the other. The two samples looked almost exactly the same, except that the Emoshi blood had a bit more of a purplish tinge, like their eyes. He’d never seen the substance before. What scientific secrets did it hide? What DNA lent itself to such incredibly long lives, and fast healing, and how could be harness it?