She didn’t read much at all. She hated romances the most because they were full of promises that would never come true.
There were a couple of security guards on hand and one of the research staff. A man in his forties, he looked nervous as she emerged from the lift. Just as he should. Xec had told her they’d had most of the staff clear the floor so she wouldn’t have to deal with anyone staring.
The freaks were being kept in separate offices. All the rooms on this level had been emptied years ago, so new furniture, including beds for the freaks, had been brought in. The walls were the usually flimsy constructions of pre-plague days, but that didn’t matter. There was no intention of allowing these freaks to wake up until they were locked away in suitable accommodations.
The sign on the door for the first one said ‘Vanessa Cooper’. The killer. Mercedes stood by the bed. The freak looked normal apart from the stupid number of freckles.
‘Show me the teeth,’ she said and the man pulled back the lips to reveal the mouth that had ripped out the throats of so many people. Better to put this rabid animal out of her misery. ‘Anything else?’
‘Nothing on the outside, no other gross feature modifications, Mrs Smith.’
Mercedes walked away. ‘Miss Smith.’
‘Sorry.’
Lucy Grainger was an abomination. She barely looked human. The folds of thick skin were plated with a hard exoskeleton, and she had lost her hair. The face, inside a cocoon of leather, looked human enough, but even her hands and feet had fused so she had fewer fingers and toes—three of each. And the horn in the middle of her forehead.
‘The DNA structural changes go all the way,’ he said in that excited way scientists got when they were discussing their own subject. ‘Modification to the LRP5 protein has given her bones that are not only able to support her increased mass, but are virtually impossible to break.’
‘Where did that come from?’
‘I’m sorry...?’
‘These changes always come from somewhere. What animal?’
‘Human.’
‘I beg your pardon?’
‘It’s a known human mutation, Miss Smith. Not the skin, obviously, but the LRP5 can be mutated to either decrease or increase bone density. This is an increase.’
‘Obviously.’
He went silent.
Just a monster, thought Mercedes. ‘Does it have increased resistance to the sedative?’
‘Oh no, none of them do. Apart from the specific structural changes they are essentially human.’
Not human enough.
The final one could have passed for a completely ordinary human. But in some ways she was the weirdest of them all. The human battery. Melinda Vogler.
‘I am particularly fascinated by this one,’ said the man.
‘I am not interested in your hobbies.’
He did not utter another word.
Mercedes stared down at the innocent and relaxed face. She hated them.
Chapter 8
Dog
Mr Mendelssohn had got the report when he sat down at his desk first thing in the morning. Delia had come across in the car—not because the weather was bad, but because she brought breakfast—and sat down with him and Jason to eat when the phone rang.
So Dog had scoffed down the rest of his, and possibly some of Jason’s when he wasn’t paying attention, pulled on his coat and trotted across to the house. He hadn’t spent this much time at Mr Mendelssohn’s house in one stretch in, well, ever. And he was enjoying it.
It wasn’t just that he got to play with Delia—and now Jason—every day, it was that he really felt he’d found his place. His pack was together.
Mr Mendelssohn was very clever. Dog knew this because he had managed to carve out his part of the criminal world and no one ever got upset with him or wanted to send their men to kill him. He could have been the leader of all the crime factions, but he didn’t want that. And that was clever too, even though Dog thought that if he’d been in that position he would have wanted to be at the top. But it was clever of Mr Mendelssohn because people weren’t trying to kill him over that either.
Mostly people didn’t want to kill him. They just wanted to do business with him.
‘Shut the door. Sit.’
Dog did as he was told.
There was a map on the desk that Mr Mendelssohn was looking at. From the glance Dog had got it was the area around Knutsford.
‘Do you know Alderley Edge?’
‘I know where it is, sir, I haven’t been there.’
‘Something happened on the Edge last night. Lights, a police raid, and lots of traffic out before that.’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘I want you to go and check it out.’
‘Why?’
‘What?’
‘Sorry, sir, I was just wondering why. We’re all quite content here at the moment, everybody’s relaxed, not much happens during the cold.’ He saw from Mr Mendelssohn’s expression that perhaps he was not saying the right things. ‘Does it matter?’
‘You will go and check it out.’
‘Yes, sir,’ said Dog. ‘I’ll take the freak-boy. He’s quiet and sneaky.’
‘Very well.’
‘Perhaps Delia—’
‘Get out!’
‘Yes, sir.’
Dog got out.
Under the instructions of Delia, her father had allowed them to acquire some new clothes, particularly for Jason. He didn’t suffer from the cold in the same way, but he needed a good-sized hoodie for his face.
‘I asked him if you could come,’ said Dog.
Delia shook her head. ‘You’re an idiot. He’s never going to let me go out on something like this. You know I’m not even allowed out of the grounds to go to...’ she groped for an idea of something she might go out for ‘...the shops.’
‘He can’t keep you locked up forever.’
She gave him a you think? look.
‘Be careful,’ she said and looked at Jason, his face hidden in the shadows of the hood. She didn’t mind his weird tentacle nose any more. ‘Both of you.’
‘Of course, Mummy,’ said Dog.
She slapped him on the arm.
The car was waiting for them outside the studio building. Mr Mendelssohn wanted the information as soon as possible, so he wasn’t going to wait for them to travel the six miles there and the same back on foot. The car took them to Chelford, two miles south of Alderley Edge, and dropped them off by the train station, long abandoned.
Jason was not as fit as Dog, and his legs were shorter. Dog knew he could have covered the distance in less than twenty minutes, but in the end it took twice that.
Mr Mendelssohn had shown them, as close as possible, the location of the incident and it got them into the area. But for him, and probably the freak-boy, it was close enough. He could still smell the gunfire, burnt papers and a bunch of other scents you only get where there’s been trouble. Even blood; human blood.
They tracked it without difficulty up the hill to the top of Edge. They crouched in the bushes on the edge of the grounds and looked at the building, and the damaged helicopter. He couldn’t tell if anyone was still here.
‘Can you smell anyone?’ he asked Jason.
Jason tapped him on the arm so he had to turn. Jason nodded and pointed at his bum.
‘You can smell someone’s fart?’
Jason nodded again.
‘Lovely.’
Dog sniffed the air. If there was a trace of it he couldn’t detect it. Maybe Jason was having a joke. Then he heard someone’s voice carrying through the still air. Okay, maybe he did smell a fart.
‘Can you get in there without anyone seeing you?’
Jason put his head to one side. You’re asking me that question?
‘Hey, don’t criticise, there’d be hell to pay if I lost you. Delia would be really pissed off, and her dad would put all that money you owe back on to me.’
Jason just stared.
; ‘Yeah, and your mum would probably kill me.’
Jason slid away so fast he left only a blur. He headed round the border of the trees and bushes, probably planning to come in on the blind side. Assuming there was a blind side. So Dog went the other way, realising as he did so he hadn’t arranged a place to meet with Jason after they had finished.
Never mind. They had noses, they’d find each other.
It was when he reached the trees near the helicopter that he smelled her. Chloe Dark. She had been here. The scent was stronger in the trees. So he climbed, awkwardly. He preferred the ground. He found the place where her scent was strongest. She had stayed here for a while, and she had a good view of the helipad. Still, it was at least twelve hours ago. She would be hard to track.
Perhaps Jason could do it.
Dog wasn’t the idiot Delia claimed, he made jokes about it but he knew Jason could smell a hell of a lot better than Dog himself. There was no time to waste. They needed to get after her.
Right now.
Where was Jason?
There was a sudden shot from inside the building. Dog didn’t pause to think. He threw himself toward the house. He shot past the abandoned helicopter and realised that he could smell Mitchell. Everyone was here, apparently, except for him.
His feet crunched in the crisp snow but he didn’t try to move more quietly. The sound wouldn’t carry and he could hear most of the noise coming from inside the house. Two men shouting. No, more than two, and if he wasn’t mistaken they were in a lower level.
He ran through the main door, only pausing to push open the sprung inner door. It flew back but he managed to grab it before it slammed into the wall. He muttered in pain; he’d caught his nail in the wood. He shoved his finger in his mouth and stood trying to get an idea of what was going on.
The smells came to him: lots of men, and some women; incinerated papers; burner scars on flesh, wood and plaster; fear and sweat; and Chloe Dark. Her scent was stronger and more recent, maybe only a couple of hours. That was good, she had stayed around after leaving her scent on the tree. Perhaps he wouldn’t need Jason after all.
He moved forward through an open door into a hall. The place was a mess. There had been equipment, chairs and desks. What was left was wrecked.
The voices had stopped shouting. He could hear a murmur in the distance, but they were not close.
Mitchell had been in here as well. He had moved around a lot, but Chloe had come from only one direction and gone out one way. He was fully attuned to her, just as he was to Mitchell, and he could trail her easily through the confused air.
There was a passage and stairs. But it was as he entered the passage he caught another scent. He stopped and tasted the air. No, not one, it was three other scents. Female. Young. And they had the same smell as him—the special smell. He grinned. Three more like Jason, Delia and Chloe?
Now that really was a pack.
Chloe’s trail crossed theirs—which was much older by over twelve hours—she had used the stairs but they hadn’t. He tracked them to the office with the shattered wall.
Nice work, he thought. The damaged wall carried the scent of one of the three. There was something about one of the others he didn’t like. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it. He kept his ears open. The men were moving about on the second floor down. Dog went into the wall gap and climbed down. Light pierced through in places and it was just enough.
He froze as someone less than a couple of yards from him shouted, ‘Clear!’ But there was a wall between them. The person moved out of the room and Dog continued down. There was another hole ripped in the wall here and the scent of the three new freaks was much clearer. There had been fewer people down here to confuse things.
Dog examined the piece of the wall lying on the floor. It wasn’t particularly tough, but he didn’t think he would be able to put finger marks into it—if those were finger marks. He wasn’t sure what had made them, must be one weird freak.
There was the sound of feet on the stairs. Whoever it was was searching the place systematically. They must have seen Jason.
Dog hurried but it was easy to follow the scent trail now, and Chloe’s was overlaid. And Jason’s on top of that.
And the smell of death.
Bodies lying in a corner with their throats torn out. He tilted his head on one side. There was part of him that said he should be disgusted, but there was the other part that suggested this might be a food source and worth remembering.
He shook his head. The bodies did not disgust him but he really mustn’t think of them as a light snack. He got closer. Only one of the three scents was associated with the deaths.
He suddenly recognised it and he wrinkled his nose in disgust. There was no mistaking it, one of the girls was a fox, and he really didn’t like foxes. And they didn’t like him.
The acrid smell of stomach acid hit him as he went through the next door. Jason was crouched in a corner. He’d been sick. Dog cocked an ear to the searchers, they were still a way back.
‘Hey, kid.’
Jason didn’t move. Freak-boy must have a delicate stomach. Dog frowned, he wasn’t sure what to do. Delia would have known.
‘Come on, we got to keep moving before those boys catch up with us.’
It was difficult. If Jason could talk it would be easier.
Dog knelt down beside him and put his hand on Jason’s shoulder. The boy flinched. He was shaking.
It was difficult to understand why he was behaving like this.
‘Jason, we have to leave.’
Dog didn’t want to leave. This was where the girls had been kept. He wanted to go into the rooms here and smell each one thoroughly. He wanted them to become part of him so he would always recognise them even if it was the slightest scent.
‘Whoever did this is gone.’ He shook his head. Jason would know that. He knew the person who made the smell had left hours ago. ‘They aren’t here now.’ But if he was acting like this it must be because he felt like he would be attacked now.
The voices were getting closer.
‘Jason, you have to be brave. Like you were when we grabbed that truck. You were good. You helped a lot.’
The footsteps were clear now. And the voices. They were cautious, expecting to corner the intruder here because there was nowhere left to hide.
‘Jason, please, I need your help. I have to find Chloe Dark. I can’t do it without you.’
Jason finally turned his head and his eyes shone out of the dark of the hood.
‘You’re better than me,’ said Dog.
A shadow crossed the window in the door.
‘Poor bastards, we need to kill the fucking freak that did this.’
Jason was up and at the door in a flash. Dog cringed. They needed a plan, not this.
Dog scrambled to his feet as Jason flung the double doors back and stood there.
‘Shit!’
‘What the—’
Jason moved forward as Dog reached him. The two men stood there, open mouthed and staring at the grotesque mockery of Jason’s face. Both held guns. One of them was pointed at Jason. There was a blur and then it was pointing at the ceiling.
‘Hey, boys!’ said Dog and leapt at the other one. He struck him in the stomach with his weight behind him. The man went down. Dog turned and jumped on to the back of the other and grabbed his gun arm, pulling it back.
The shot went off and ricocheted off the walls. But Dog kept pulling and this one went down too.
‘Run!’
Dog hared off along the dead straight corridor. This didn’t please him because they made easy targets, but it would take them a moment to recover enough to fire.
The room he was looking for came up on the right. Just as Jason went past him. Kid can run.
‘In here,’ he said and dived into the room as a gun went off. There was a terrifying moment when he wondered if Jason might have been hit, then he reappeared and ran in.
Dog pointed at the hole and then u
p. Jason was in and moving fast, but Dog could hear their attackers pounding after them. He slipped into the hole and slid to the right. Above him Jason was already nearing the upper level.
The head, shoulders and a hand carrying a gun came into view. Dog held his breath.
Don’t look this way. Don’t look this way. Don’t look this way.
‘They’re getting away.’
The head pulled back.
‘We’ll never catch them.’
‘You know who that was, right?’
‘Tentacles?’
‘No, the other one was Dog.’
‘Mitchell’s favourite?’
‘That’s the one.’
‘Yeah, but the other one—did you see that face?’
‘Real nasty freak.’
There was a long pause.
‘You want to spend three months in quarantine?’
‘Must have been a cat.’
‘Or a rat.’
‘Or nothing.’
‘Nothing.’
They moved away and out of the room. Dog climbed.
All he had to do now was get Jason to follow Chloe’s scent. They weren’t far behind her. And Mr Mendelssohn would be very pleased when he came back with her and three more for the pack. Well, maybe two, the fox could stay out of it.
He grinned at how much credit he would get for this.
Chapter 9
Sapphire
Another day out of school. She wasn’t sure she cared anymore. She stared at the piece of paper on the table in front of her. She had intended to write a to-do list but all she had done was doodled. Not quite true. There were the words ‘To do’ at the top and underlined. Item one was ‘Find Chloe’.
That was as far as she had got. The rest of the sheet was covered with the girl’s name over and over. Embellished with flowers and stars, and outlined multiple times. There was no more room for a list. Even though it had been doodling she had made a point of not drawing a love heart.
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