A.I.R. Shattered Soul

by Amanda Booloodian

  “He'll probably need to eat something,” I commented, getting to my feet.

  Hank had never been to my house before, so I put out the best welcome spread I could on short notice. I made some lemonade, some sweet tea, and coffee. I put out a tray of cookies.

  Logan changed out the water in my flower arrangements. Rider looked a little glum at the flowers, so I got him busy wiping down the table and counters.

  “Houses are not this clean where I am from. Not that this is a bad thing,” he said hurriedly. “I've never seen anyone do it as much as you and Margaret. Cooking too, for that matter.”

  Logan burst out laughing. “You should have been warned, Rider. Cassie's Gran is a Southern Belle. Their houses are clean, their kids are well-mannered, and there is always something fresh to eat and drink for company.”

  “Southern Belle.” Rider rolled the words over. “Are you a Southern Belle, Cassie?”

  Logan laughed even harder. I crossed my arms and leaned against the counter waiting for his laughter to die down. Once he caught his breath, he answered Rider's question.

  “Cassie was born in Missouri. She's not from the South, but she picked up some habits from her Gran and from her mother, I'm sure.”

  Logan had never met my mother. If he had, he’d know I learned very little from my mother.

  “I've seen plenty of Southern Belle's in the movies, but none compare to Margaret,” Logan said. “Not only is the house clean and ready for guests, but she's ready to kick butt and take names if it comes down to it. And she'll make you thank her for it too.”

  I couldn't help laughing.

  The doorbell rang and I wiped my hands dry and went to answer. Once Hank settled at the table with a meal and coffee, Logan started easing him into our plan.

  “We need some information tracked down,” Logan said. “Someone went to trouble to make sure that Cassie here was attacked.”

  “We've looked into that. New protocols are in place to keep something like that from happening again,” Hank said.

  “That's great,” I said, “but someone had to put things in motion.”

  Hank shook his head. “I’ve already dug in that hole.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “I checked the message that sent Vincent out here. Checked the whole trail. It led to a dead end.”

  “A dead end?” I asked.

  “I tried everything I could think of. I traced the message back and found nothing, and then I dug into our own systems, thinking I could find a trace,” Hank said.

  Logan clapped Hank on the back looking grateful. “You already did all that?”

  Hank’s downturned face turned into a grin. “Ages ago, my friend. I wish there was something else I could do to help.”

  “There’s something else,” Logan said. He filled Hank in on the sordis and our thoughts behind the issue.

  “Do you think the kidnapping of the Lost is related to Cassie being on the hit list?” Hank asked.

  “Well,” Logan said with his twang, “it’s a hell of a coincidence if it’s not connected. Besides, Cassie has the best chance of connecting point A to point C with a weak trail.”

  “Good point,” Hank said.

  “We gotta make sure that our horses are reined in,” Logan said. “Someone in the office isn’t on the up and up.”

  “Maybe if we can find a motive, we could narrow down our search?” I suggested.

  “What motive would anyone have for kidnapping innocents?” Rider asked.

  “There could also be a power play somewhere along the way,” Logan said.

  “Kyrian was talking about someone retiring,” I said.

  Everyone seemed to mull that over.

  “They’re selling them.” The thought left a bad taste in my mouth as I spoke the words. “This could boil down to money.”

  Logan looked disgusted.

  “Both possibilities, and that could help me narrow down my search,” Hank said. “I’ll start pulling information. I’ll start with the sordis. If we have a demon running around, we need to bag it fast.”

  ***

  Logan’s call came early the next morning.

  “Did Hank find something already?” I asked, fumbling with the cell phone.

  “We found them,” Logan said.

  My mind spun trying to catch up with Logan's words. “We found them?” Then realization struck. “All of them? The Lost are found?”

  “Don't know if it's all of them, but gear up, we're about to find out.”

  We had our location at last. I threw on my gear and met Logan outside. We armed ourselves and met up with other teams. Rider joined Hank at the office. Everyone was under Logan's instruction as lead in the case.

  “I haven’t been here in years. It's still such a small town,” I said, looking at the map of Eugene on the computer.

  “We're putting our finger down on the whole town,” Logan said. “There are three roads in and out, so we're blocking all three. Even if they weren't involved, they may have seen something. The heat signature though, it’s there.”

  We set up a roadblock and pulled out maps at the entrance to town. Others drove through to block any other traffic that might try to enter or leave. Logan handed out directions over the earpieces and ticked off areas on the map. When he was done setting things up, I noticed something missing.

  “We should check out the cave,” I suggested.

  Logan was visibly tense. “What cave?”

  “It's on the property that backs up to the house.” Into the earpiece I added, “Hank, do our warrants cover the cave?”

  “There is no cave on the map,” Hank said through the coms.

  “It's huge. How can there be no cave on the map?” I asked.

  “Where is it located?” Hank asked.

  “It's on private property behind the house,” I said.

  “All that land belongs to one person. It's covered in the warrants. We'll try to get more images of that area,” Hank said.

  Each team got into place. Once the roads were blocked, we went in. Logan and I were on the front door of the house with the heat signatures. Another team was at the back. I tensed as the door battered open and Logan announced our entry. My heart beat loudly in my chest as I went in to the room to the right and Logan went left. The stench of rotted food churned my stomach.

  “I’ve got Lost, but no perps,” Logan said through the coms.

  The urge to drop my position and check on the Lost was strong, but I kept moving. My hand gripped the rifle so hard I could feel each groove in the grip. Trash littered the living room. I announced “clear,” loudly. Others echoed the same in other parts of the house. I found the next room already covered, so I circled round to my partner.

  “Get the doc in here,” Logan said through the coms. “I want two teams going door to door. We need to know everyone that’s come and gone from this town.”

  With my gun still in hand, I entered the room. The smell of waste overwhelmed my senses.

  “Oh, hell.” Logan's voice was barely audible. He had his gun away and he was looking around the room.

  Lost were stuck in cages that had been stacked haphazardly on top of each other. I walked to the center of the room and stopped. Tears began to flow down my face, but I didn't care.

  Logan started going cage by cage, starting with the ones by the door. “You're safe now. We're bringing in help.” There was a desperate edge to his voice.

  Doctor Yelton came in and started to take a quick assessment of the situation.

  I wanted to rip open every cage and let each Lost run away. Most of them couldn't run. Faeries were slumped against the bottom of their cages, wings unmoving. Gnomes were usually a blurry streak. Here they lay listless in corners.

  “Start opening cages,” Logan said.

  Numbly, I walked over to a cage. “You're safe. Wait here for the doctor.” My voice trembled and threatened to break. “We're going to get you home.”

  Desperately, I tried to
push the scene into the dark recesses of my brain. Force it down so I could focus on my job. It wasn't working.

  I opened two more cages before my eyes narrowed in on a horrifying sight. I walked slowly to a cage in the corner. Its occupant wasn't moving. The closer I got, the more the stench of decay gripped the air. I turned away from the cage. We were too late. Numbness filled me like white noise. The lights were too bright, the noises too loud.

  I turned my back and went to another cage. “You're safe now.” It took me some time to get the words out. The doctor had already sent several Lost out the door with agents. Transporting everyone back to the Farm had already started.

  “Go outside and clear your head,” Logan said.

  Someone stepped up to take my place and I silently left the house.

  The sun mocked me with its bright rays. Taking a few deep breaths of the fresh air helped. I started to push away images of what we discovered inside the house.

  Logan had a plan for me, or he wouldn’t have sent me out here. I needed to move and be useful. The thought of going back inside made me cringe, but I wanted to be working.

  Agents scoured the area around the house, but another set of eyes wouldn't hurt.

  Other agents were already processing an empty shed. I stared at the outside of the house and made a circuit around the perimeter. My mind felt like it moved through sludge. Something was missing. All those small people inside. Where were the larger Lost?

  Logan met me outside. “Let's saddle up and go see this cave.”

  Years ago, I came out here with friends. The cave had a wide entrance with several rooms carved out where they quarried stone. There was nothing at the entrance, but we explored the other rooms.

  The minotaur was in the first room we inspected. I expected the large horned man to be raging. Instead, he was terribly wounded. There were lacerations across his body. Either whips or chains had stripped flesh from chest, back, arms, and legs. We called another team and the doctor over to the cave.

  The minotaur was chained to the ground, unable to stand. I tried to talk to him, but received no response. We left some someone with him while we scouted the rest of the cave.

  In another room, we found the centaur. He had fared little better. He tried to talk when we entered, but his voice was gone. His skin had a pinched look of severe dehydration. He stood, chained to a wall with a collar around his neck.

  We tried without success to pull the chains from the wall. Logan sent me back to the truck to grab bolt cutters.

  Chapter 26

  Going straight to the minotaur I tried to cut the chains. He watched listlessly as I struggled. Logan took the tool and used his immense strength to cut the chains while the doctor looked over his patient. He ordered a stretcher to take the man quickly back to the Farm.

  The doctor looked weary. How long had we been here? How many patients had he already seen? The doctor did a cursory inspection of the centaur and ordered him back to the Farm. The doctor rushed to catch up with the minotaur.

  We stayed at the cave. We inspected every inch, looking for signs of other Lost. In a small room carved out of the back of the cave, we found sets of chains drilled into a wall, but the chains were empty. Their wearers had moved on to unknown locations.

  Logan called on me to read the Path. The landscape was marred with pain so strong that I couldn't read anything of use. We called in the clean-up crew and left the blighted stone behind.

  One house and one cave. Most of the missing Lost were accounted for.

  Back at the house, we fingerprinted everything before starting to load empty cages into the truck. We were careful to use gloved hands on everything. Clancy would be going over everything in minute detail.

  Doing what I could, I read the Path in the house. Pain and despair had permanently leeched into the fabric of the Path. It bled into every fiber of the house. I followed each Path as it entered and left the house. For each of the Lost, I noted when they entered. Some left and never returned.

  Outside, I picked up apathy and greed. The kidnappers. Anger seethed inside me as I followed each of their Paths in and out of the house. Someone spent a good deal of time walking around outside.

  It wasn't until Logan put his hand on my shoulder that I realized I had done too much. The Path tried to cling to me when I pushed it away. I gritted my teeth and tried not to waver when I stopped Reading. The world was dull and dark when I dropped the Path, but I welcomed the darkness after the intensity of emotions that surrounded us.

  The sun had already sunk below the horizon. We'd been there for hours, but it felt like days.

  As soon as we reached the offices, we started processing the Lost that were well enough to be returned home. It was heartening to know that some were only waiting for Logan to sign off on their discharge before they could leave. We quickly handled the ones that were ready to go home.

  Checking into Clancy's progress, I found the man in tears. Similar to what I had felt in the house, he was taking in the emotions of each item of evidence. From the pain and fear of the cages down to the greed and gluttony of the trash left behind.

  Leaving Clancy behind, I started helping the agents trudging through trash to find useful pieces of evidence. Grim images churned in my mind as I catalogued items.

  Barry looked anxious and split his time between getting case updates and being on the phone with Washington. Hank pulled every satellite picture he could from the area. Dr. Taylor from MyTH and other medical staff were pouring into the Farm. The entire building was working toward one grueling task. Find those responsible.

  Hank stopped on his way by my desk. “You might want to see to the new guy.”

  I scanned the room for Vincent, hope rising in my chest, and then my eyes landed on Rider.

  “He looks worse off than you,” Hank said.

  He wasn't wrong. Our werewolf stood at the edge of the room looking forlorn.

  “I've got him,” I said.

  Hank nodded and I went to Rider. I led him to a desk and we buried ourselves deeply in paperwork. We went over procedures and protocols until my mind was firmly fixed on training.

  We went home for a few hours that night, but sleep was fueled by nightmares and didn’t last.

  The next day at the office, coffee flowed heavily. Logan pulled Rider and me into a conference room to debrief.

  “There are holes in the case,” I said to Logan.

  Logan nodded. “Big ones.”

  Kyrian overheard as she walked by. As leads in the case, we consistently had Barry or Kyrian hovering around us.

  “Reps from Washington will be here in two days,” Kyrian said. “We can't have holes in the case.”

  Taking the comment personally, my cheeks turned pink and I narrowed my eyes at her. Logan, on the other hand, kept his cool.

  “That's what we have,” Logan said. “We don't know who's further up the line.”

  “Fix it.” Kyrian walked off without another word.

  I rubbed my temples after she left.

  “What don't we know?” Logan asked.

  He was getting all mentor-y again. My attention focused.

  “We don't know who's above Seth in the organization,” I said.

  “Does there need to be anyone above Seth?” Logan asked.

  “I think so,” I said. “Seth was the one catching. I don't think he was the one selling. Plus, where did he find out about the different types of Lost?”

  “Those that know about the Lost are pretty limited,” Logan said.

  “MyTH and AIR know about them,” Rider said.

  Logan nodded. “There are a few other non-profits. Other countries have their own agencies as well.”

  “Didn't you say something about secret societies before?” I asked.

  “I don't expect them to be too involved,” Logan said. “If they are, we’ll have a hell of a time tracking them down.”

  I thought back over the last month of activity. “We're looking for more than someone who knows
about the Lost. We're looking for someone who knows about portals too, and where specific Lost are located. They knew where to find the fairies, not exactly, but enough that they kept searching the area over and over again.”

  “That leads us to where we were before,” Logan said. “Someone in the agency.”

  “Before we found the Lost, we were talking about the beast that killed the troll,” Rider added. “We do not know if it plays a part in any of this.”

  “If it could have opened the portals, it may know who else is involved. It may even be at the top of the food chain itself,” Logan said.

  “I think that’s where we should start. Let's go track a monster,” I said.

  Rider instantly looked eager.

  Logan was a little more resigned. “Whatever this thing is, it's smart, Cassie. Tracking might be difficult. It could be just about anywhere.”

  “I don't think so,” I replied. “If Rider is willing to help,” he started nodding before I even got the words all the way out, “then we have the best tracker we can get. I think it's still in the area. If it opened those portals, it's probably been regaining its strength. If it’s a part of this, it could also be waiting for payment. I think we have a good chance of tracking this thing down.”

  “What are we going to do once we track it down?” Logan asked.

  “I think we need it alive,” I ventured. “We need to knock it out somehow.”

  “I'm not sure we can use the tranquilizers with this thing without setting up some kind of ambush,” Logan started. “I'm a good shot, but I need to be positioned right. We don't even know what it is, so there may not be a way to lure it out.”

  “Once we locate the thing, luring it out is going to be easy,” I said with confidence. Logan looked at me thoughtfully, but Rider was still clueless.

  “How do we lure it out if we do not know what it wants?” Rider asked.

  “I think it'll want me,” I said.

  “No!” Rider said loudly. “We will not let you do that.”

  I crossed my arms and looked at Rider. Logan actually scooted his chair away some. “Won't let me? Look, I know you're new here and all, but this is something you need to know. You do not let me do anything. I wasn't asking for permission, and I certainly don't need permission. If you want to help, great. If you want to stay out of it, that's fine too. But unless anyone else has another suggestion, this is the best option we have.”